


Pushing the Limits

by KieraElieson



Series: Kidge, if you squint. [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Pidge can't solve it on her own, Pidge | Katie Holt-centric, Trapped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-03 23:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17293421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KieraElieson/pseuds/KieraElieson
Summary: Pidge goes off on her own to find her dad and Matt, but instead gets stuck. The other paladins have to find her and get her out.





	Pushing the Limits

**Author's Note:**

> This has the characters at about their season one or two selves. I probably could have divided it into chapters, but honestly, that's not the way I work.

Pidge had finally found something. She knew from Shiro that her dad and Matt had been sent to some kind of work colony, but, search as she might, she had never found one. Until now.

The records weren’t recent, and there was certainly no evidence that they were there, but it was a work colony. After scanning the planet, she had learned that the records were older than she thought, and that the work colony wasn’t there anymore. Hadn’t been for many years at least. But the actual buildings were still there. They might have records in them about where the other work colonies were. It might be nothing, but it was a lead, at least. And Pidge was going to go check it out.

When she asked Shiro, to her surprise, he was fine with her doing it as a solo mission. The planet was very small, and in a safe area of space. Besides, Allura had some kind of business nearby, and Pidge could probably get as much information as she wanted and get back to the castle long before Allura was likely to. Lance offered to go with her, but Pidge decided that she’d rather go alone.

So that was what she was doing. Riding along in Green, and almost to the planet. Now that she could see it in person, the thick green circle that she had assumed to be a cultivated forest turned out to be a perfectly round, flat cloud, at least a hundred miles across, and yes, green. The compound was right on the edge of it.

She landed Green just outside the compound, and prowled around, still inside her lion. It matched her scans. Under the cloud was a thick rainforest, reaching right up and into the lower part of the cloud. The trees were massive, and, between the underbrush and the cloud, limbless. It was separated into three clean layers, underbrush, empty space with thick trunks at regular intervals, and then a cover of branches and cloud. Beautiful.

Pidge got out and explored the compound. It was old, and had been mostly cleaned out when it was abandoned, but there were still some computers that might have data. Pidge went back to Green and got out her box of cables. Green had a cable that was unbelievably long, and she could power almost anything with it, but Pidge had to find a converter that would work with the old computers.

It took about half an hour to find the right one, but she did, and powered up the computer that looked to be the most important. It turned on all right, but then it was just...black. She pushed every button, but nothing. It had been completely wiped. She tried several of the other computers, but clearly they had left this compound in a calm and orderly manner, cleaning up after themselves. It was immensely disappointing.

Pidge explored the rest of the compound, hoping to find a tablet that had been left behind, or a schedule of some sort. From outside, Green gave a soft rumble. Pidge ran out to see what was wrong. Green was looking at a large board, and Pidge felt a mental nudge towards it. It was blank, grayish green, and wasn’t a screen, that much she knew already. Also, it was much too high for her to reach. She climbed inside Green, and moved her so that she could reach the board from her mouth. Pidge then inspected it more closely. The gray-green was not its color, but a mixture of dust and moss. She pulled at some of it, and it came off in a sheet. Pidge ripped it at the edges of where she could reach, and saw that it was covering some kind of glass, and beneath the glass was a map. The map of the compound. She went back to her pilot’s seat and carefully, very carefully, maneuvered Greens paw to catch just the moss on the claw. It took several tries, and once she nearly pulled down the whole sign, but she finally caught it, and pulled away the whole massive sheet of moss.

Pidge looked in shock and awe at the map. The part of the compound that she was in was minuscule. The entire cloud area was a part of this compound. On the side was a complete schedule for the compound. She ran a translation program. The compound would send off a shipload of various metals every…. hour? That couldn’t be right. She could see on the map that under the rainforest was a deep web of mines, but even if it was full of workers, there was no way that they would be sending off a shipload every hour. Once a day, or even twice, she could see with enough workers, but not every hour. She would have to update her translation program to include older dialects.

Then a thought struck her. Mines would have things left in them by accident. She might well get some good information, if she could avoid getting lost. She took off in Green and flew into the circle. As they went under the shade of the trees she was hit with an odd feeling. It made her shiver, but after that she realized that it was much warmer inside the circle. She flew around for a while, looking for an opening through the undergrowth. She didn’t find one, so she very carefully tried to set Green down. For a moment it seemed that the undergrowth was thick and dense enough to hold them up. Pidge stood up, about to climb down through it, when suddenly it gave way. She was thrown around the cockpit and slammed her head into something. Then Green hit the ground, and Pidge was thrown again. This time she passed out.

  
_____________________________________

  
Pidge slowly woke up. “Agh. What happened?”

Green rumbled.

Pidge felt her head, which felt like it was about to split open. It didn’t seem to be bleeding, but she had a large lump on the back of her head, and a smaller lump on the side. She checked out her arms and legs, which were fine other than some bruises. She stood up carefully. She wasn’t dizzy, and she didn’t pass out, so she probably didn’t have a concussion. At least… oh, who was she kidding, she had no idea if she had a concussion or not. She didn’t even know how to tell.

Pidge looked out. Green was half submerged in swamp, which the trees and brush were growing out of. Also, the brush was not merely brush, it went up several hundred feet past Green’s head, and much of it was vine like, but thicker than than tree trunks on earth. But, if Green was half in water, and the mines were below them, they must be waterlogged. There’d be no hope of finding a left behind tablet or record book without diving.

“Let’s go girl. We aren’t going to find anything here.”

Green rumbled.

Pidge carefully flew her up, struggling a bit to escape the vacuum from the mud and water and to get through the tangle of branches. They made it. It really was one of the most fascinating biomes Pidge had ever seen. The air itself seemed to be green, and the perfect circumstances that had made it into such a perfect circle were incredible.

Pidge flew Green back the way they had came. But from this side, she could see that at the edge of the circle, where it connected to the compound, there was a massive gate. When she got closer she saw that the brush had at one time been cleared away, and there were many deep holes, with built up edges to keep the water out, and they had metal in them, or at least metal ore. Judging by sight, and from so far away, it looked like it could possibly be something like silver.

While she was looking at the metal, suddenly Pidge was thrown out of her seat again, crashing into the windshield. She stood up quickly.

“What the quiznak just happened?!”

Green was still trying to fly forward, but there was some kind of barrier. Pidge couldn’t see it, nor could she feel the prickle of electricity common to an energy field. She pulled Green back, and settled her down by the gate.

Pidge got up and walked up to the gate. It was possible that Green would fit through if she could get it open. There was a small sign right in the middle. On the sign, written in many different languages, were the same two phrases.

**Will not open from the inside. Will be opened every third day for supplies.**

Pidge scoffed. Such a large gate would have to be opened by machinery, and she could hack that. She started looking for connection points, anywhere where anything could be plugged in.

Nothing.

Pidge stuck a special converter to the gate, one that should connect it to Green, even without a proper connection point. She pulled up her screen.

Nothing.

There was no hint of any type of electricity whatsoever attached to the gate, much less any kind of computer.

But that was fine, Pidge could easily come up with more ideas.

 

 

 

 

An hour passed. Approximately 7.35 ideas were tried, to no avail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another hour. More fruitless ideas. Pidge was beginning to be frustrated.

 

 

And hungry.

 

 

  
And tired.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
It was getting dark, and the plants were making strange sounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
The bumps on her head were giving her a headache.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still nothing worked to open the gate or get through the invisible wall.

 

 

 

Pidge retreated. At one point she thought that Lance had stuck a blanket somewhere in Green. She searched until she found it, and curled up on the pilot’s chair.

  
___________________________________________________________

 

Pidge woke up while it was still dark. She folded the blanket in half and wrapped it around her shoulders like a cape. Then she climbed down and outside, ready to put her brain back to work on the problem.

But the darkness, penetrated only by Green’s headlights, and the quiet creaking of the forest and swishing of brackish water was unnerving.

“What do you think, Green?” Pidge said, glad for the way her voice cut through the quiet. “How are we supposed to get out?”

Pidge started at the gate, looking for something that she had missed. Her stomach grumbled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before.

“Or food. I would take food too.”

Green rumbled.

“What?”

Green opened her mouth and Pidge climbed in. She sat down in the pilot’s seat.

“All right. If you know where food is, you’ll have to show me.”

Pidge closed her eyes. She felt a pull to the left, and then straight into the bramble. It was slow going, breaking through the plant matter. But after a while Pidge felt like this was the place to stop. She climbed down, very very carefully. Green couldn’t lower her head all the way, so Pidge climbed and slid down the vines.

At the bottom, floating on the water, there were clusters of berries. Pidge pulled at one, nearly falling off of the log-vine-whatever she was balancing on. They had strong stems, and she wouldn’t be pulling them out without something to cut the stems. Besides, how was she going to carry them back up? Pidge looked up. It would be hard just to get back, much less to be carrying something. But she did want to get back. Inside the cockpit felt a lot safer than anywhere else.

Pidge grabbed the base of the bunch, and pulled the bunch out of the water, with her other hand she pulled out her bayard and sliced through the stem. It was still too wet, and the bayard shocked her. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make her drop what she was holding, lose her balance, and fall off into the water.

From above her, Green rumbled loudly.

The water was hardly waist deep, and the paladin armor was waterproof, so Pidge wasn’t in any trouble.

“I’m fine, girl. Don’t worry. Just gotta find my bayard again.”

She dug around in the mud at her feet until she found it, then pulled it out and grabbed up the bunch of berries she had cut off. The bunch itself was about the size of a bunch of grapes, and purple, but not… grape-purple. She morphed her bayard into the grappling hook, without electricity, and hooked the hook to the bunch and the bayard to her belt. She made the line go slack, and climbed up to Green’s mouth, then carefully pulled up the bunch of berries, so that it wouldn’t smack into any of the limbs.

She settled back into her chair with the blanket wrapped around her. She picked a berry off the stem and pulled it in half. The inside was starchy, rather than juicy, and a pale orange. She knew that she shouldn’t just eat it without knowing if it was poisonous, but Green was the one who suggested it, and Green wouldn’t lead her to poison. She set the open side of the berry on her tongue. It was sour, and as she bit it, the texture was like a banana, but with a peel like a grape. It had seeds, but they were tiny, and Pidge ate them along with the half of the berry. She waited a good ten minutes, just to be sure that it wouldn’t affect her poorly, but it didn’t seem to.

Pidge popped three berries into her mouth at once. The sourness made her squinch her face up, but she didn’t dislike them at all.

“Thanks, Green, these are really good.”

Green rumbled, and it was almost a purr.

“I’ve been thinking, though. Where is everyone? Normally I’d get a message of some kind, at least, if I was gone this long. But they haven’t sent anything, and they haven’t come either. It’s been, what, fourteen hours? So even if we just sit tight, they’ll come open the gate from the other side pretty soon. Still, I want to get it open myself. See how it works.”

Pidge, eating while she talked, had nearly finished off the bunch.

“Ok, let’s head back to the gate.”

Pidge got out at the gate and started poking around again. The light had become nearly lime green, so the sun must have risen.

She was looking at several sensors that she had pulled out of Green, trying to determine if the gate opened through some kind of alien Bluetooth, when an image popped into her head. It was the second section of hinge on the left of the gate. Pidge was surprised. What did that have to do with anything?

Green grumbled at her, and the image popped into her head again, with a bit more force.

“Is that you? You can put pictures into my head? Just like that? What’s up with the hinge? Did you find something out?”

In response, there was only the image again. Pidge went over to the place, but the spot was two feet over her head. It didn’t look any different from anything else, but now she was curious. She got back into Green and maneuvered her right next to the gate. Then she climbed up onto Green’s paw and took a closer look at the spot. Right next to the hinge, hidden from all normal view, was a thumbprint scanner.

Pidge squealed. “You did it! You found something! Good Job, Green!”

Green let out a loud rumble, and Pide could practically feel the happiness and pride. Pidge ran back inside. She had been working on something for a while now, and, perfectly, the part that she had just finished was the thumb. She had used the gloves of sentries, and Shiro’s arm, and had been working on a glove for herself that would allow her to get into Galra tech. She slipped it on, powered it up, and ran back down. She stuck her thumb onto the scanner, and a minute later a panel opened. Inside was only one button, and above it was written something in Galra.

Not even caring to know what the words said, Pidge pressed the button. Immediately she could hear a muffled, low tone. It sounded like it was some kind of alarm on the other side of the gate, but why it was just a static, low tone, Pidge didn’t know. At any rate, it didn’t seem to be doing anything on this side of the gate. She ran back up the Green to run the translation software.

**Emergency open. Will start alarm for gate to be opened.**

Pidge huffed. Clearly the builders of this place had intended for it to only be opened from the outside. But even in emergency? This was annoying. She could feel Green’s displeasure also.

The deep thrum was also annoying. And Pidge doubted that it could be turned off without the gate opening.

  
____________________________________________________

  
Lance was bored. Pidge had gone off to search an old empty prison-y thing. Shiro and Allura had gone to talk to some aliens, and Hunk had gone with them in the hope of finding new food. Keith had gone to the training deck, and Coran was sleeping. There was absolutely nothing to do.

  
_________________________________________________

  
Pidge was beginning to realize that Green had a thought process. She had factually known it before, but now, Green was talking to her. Not with words, it was mostly pictures and rumbles, and sometimes a roar. They hadn’t found anything else about how to get through the gate, but they had turned their attentions to getting through the wall instead. However, nothing had worked so far.

“Agh! This is annoying. And I’m hungry. Wanna go get lunch?” Pidge said.

Green rumbled.

Pidge was really surprised. In the last twenty-four hours, she had grown far closer to Green than she would have thought was possible. Once they had agreed on going to get food, Pidge felt that she was acting much more as a guide than a pilot to Green. Green could, and would, move on her own for Pidge, as long as they both understood what they were going for. Also, it seemed that she could read Pidge’s mind with remarkable ease.

The berries were for lunch, and Pidge had a slow, confusing conversation with Green about whether or not the lions could eat anything, which morphed into how did they sense things. It didn’t yield many answers, mostly because Pidge didn’t know enough about the lions yet to ask the right questions.

“Oh! I’ve got an idea. There are tunnels and mines all under here, and it’s quite possible that some of them go past the wall, under it.”

Green sent her a picture of a maze.

“Well, yeah, it’s complicated, but as long as I’m careful it’ll be fine.”

Green kept the picture up.

“And I’ve still got the armor, and that will keep me in oxygen. I’ll just swim through and see.”

Green rumbled. She sent another picture, one of a person getting electrocuted.

“What’s that supposed to mean? And where are you getting these pictures anyway?”

Green sent her another picture. In it, Pidge was looking at herself in a mirror, specifically, looking at her forehead.

“Are they from my head? So you can see anything that I’ve seen before? What about paladins before me?”

In response, Green sent her a picture of an alien, wearing the green paladin armor, and looking into a mirror and scrubbing off something from the helmet.

“Hmm. That’s really neat, but what did you mean by the electrocution?”

Green turned her head back and looked at the wall surrounding them.

“The wall electrocutes you? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Green rumbled.

“I don’t understand.” Pidge frowned. “I want to test it out.”

She went back with Green to the gate. Next to the gate, where the invisible wall started, she touched it carefully with a finger. Nothing happened. She set her whole hand on it, and still nothing. It was smooth, and gave slightly as she pushed it, like rubber.

Green growled at her.

“What?! It literally is doing nothing.” Pidge let go to turn around and face her, and nearly fell over. She sank to her knees. Her energy was sapped. She felt exhausted. “What was that?”

Green sent her the electrocution picture again. She gave a different sounding rumble, clearly an I-told-you-so.

“Yeah, but what is it? I’ve never seen anything like it. Galra can’t have made something like this.”

Pidge tried to get up. “Aside from that, I’m going to need a nap. Wait, does the wall go underground? Is that why you didn’t want me to go? So I wouldn’t pass out underwater?”

Green rumbled. She moved her head right next to Pidge.

Pidge climbed inside, picked up the blanket, and curled up on the pilot’s seat. It was barely two minutes before she was asleep.

  
__________________________________________________________

  
The ship carefully docked. Shiro stepped down and held out a hand to Allura. She took his hand daintily and stepped down as well, looping her arm through his. Elim guards walked towards them, scanning them. A Galra soldier stood off to the side, watching both them and the other ship that had just docked.

Allura nudged Shiro. He nodded minutely, and strode off towards the castle. This was going to be the hard part. The Elim guards followed them at a distance.

Once they entered the castle they were scanned again, much more thoroughly. Shiro’s arm definitely counted as a weapon, and was picked up on every scan, but they never confronted him with it. Then they were ushered into the throne room.

The room was magnificent. The walls and ceilings were a creamy white, and the decorations were all soft, minty greens. The floor was a checkerboard pattern, and in each green checker were two grooves. Shiro saw why, as the guards escorting them moved off to the side and knelt on the floor, their legs fitting into the grooves perfectly.

The king and queen sat up on a podium, but behind and above them was another, smaller podium, in a purple that clashed with the room, and a Galran commander sat on it.

The Elim themselves were rather human-like in appearance. Much taller, almost stretched out looking, and very slender. Their skin was gray-green, and waterproof, very smooth, and rather hard. Their hands were webbed, but the webbing was thin, and mostly clear, so you couldn’t tell unless they spread their fingers. Their hair looked, oddly enough, like angel hair pasta, and was the same creamy color as they had painted on the walls.

The king and queen looked tired, strained. They nodded to Shiro and Allura.

Shiro led Allura to the squares with grooves near the throne, and he knelt, bowing his head, and being very careful not to lose his wig. He settled back, surprised that the grooves were as comfortable as they were. Underneath the thin, hard layer of the floor was a rubberized one, and it was comfortable, even when sitting on his knees.

The king saw his arm, and glanced to the side. Shiro followed his glance, and saw a very old Elim, kneeling on the floor, who looked to be asleep. The king’s eyes flicked back to Shiro, and he looked worried.

“What is it you want here?” The king asked, in a voice that surprised Shiro with its depth and fullness.

“We are traders,” Shiro replied. “It is only I and my wife, and I am aware that it would be of no great benefit to your kingdom, but we wish for your permission to trade with your people.”

The king was silent for a moment. Shiro became very aware of Allura fidgeting beside him. He took her hand, though he didn’t dare look away from the king.

“What is it that you wish to trade?”

“Mostly decorative items. We’ve heard, and now can see, the great beauty and skill of your craftsmen. We do not know yet what we may bring to trade with your people, but we have brought a wide variety of items with us.”

The queen looked pointedly at Allura. “And what do you say?”

Allura looked up, her face practically sparkling with the brightness of her smile. “I’ve been fascinated by Elis since I was a child. I would be greatly pleased if you would permit us to trade with your people.”

The queen smiled, and glanced at her husband. He was not smiling, and glanced at the old Elim again. The queen followed his gaze, and her smile faded.

Suddenly, startling everyone there, the Galran commander stood up. “I approve. This audience is now over.” He stepped down from his podium, and then from the other podium, and stalked out of the room.

  
______________________________________________________

  
When Pidge woke up it was still bright out. Her stomach growled.

“How long did I sleep?”

Green sent her a picture of a sun moving in a spiral, from day, to night, to day again.

“That long? The wall must be more powerful than I had thought. And I’m starving.”

Pidge and Green went to get some food.

“I really do want to try looking underneath. I’ll be careful not to mess with the wall. But I’m thinking, this much water can’t be a new thing, so they must’ve had aquatic aliens mining here, and they might’ve had waterproof tech for underneath also.”

Green didn’t protest, so Pidge moved on.

“I’ll just go down that main shaft we saw, and see if there’s anything there. Probably, since there was a map in the compound, there’ll be a map in there somewhere too. I’ll make sure to follow it, and I won’t get lost.”

Green still didn’t protest, but Pidge could almost feel her emotions, part curiosity and part worry.

“Don’t worry!” Pidge said, flashing her a smile. “I know what I’m doing. And if anything goes wrong you can come get me.”

Green rumbled, and took Pidge back to the gate. Pidge put on all her armor, and turned on the oxygen in the helmet. She waved to Green, and walked into the opening.

It slanted down pretty steeply, and soon Pidge has gone underwater. After a few hundred feet, there was an opening, a room, and a map. Pidge felt all around the map, but it wasn’t technological in any way. From the map, she could see that there were many large rooms in a circle close to the edge of the wall, and each room sent out rays down and to the inside of the circle. She was in the first one, and it was empty. She hoped, though, that if she followed the main tunnels to the next room that it would have at least something.

So she swam that way. The tunnel wasn’t entirely straight, and there were parts where the ceiling was dry. It took her nearly ten minutes to be able to see the opening to the next room. In it, though. Pidge could see a light. Her heart soared, she had found something! She swam faster, getting into the room just as the light was leaving it through another tunnel. She swam after it, but it was more than twice as fast as her, and it was out of sight before she’d even crossed the room.

Pidge stopped in front of the smaller tunnel. She turned up the lights in her suit, trying to see a bit farther, but she couldn’t see whatever it was. After a minute of thinking, she swam after it. But no sooner had she entered the tunnel than something grabbed her ankle.

Pidge let out a sudden shriek of surprise, and then there were more hands grabbing onto her. Distantly, but still loud, she could hear Green roaring.

Suddenly and alien face floated into her field of vision and placed their hands on the sides of her helmet. “Call off the lion, or I will remove your helmet.”

  
__________________________________________________________

  
“So what now?” Shiro whispered to Allura. They had been escorted to a guest room, but he didn’t doubt that there would be listening devices everywhere.

“Now, we wait for the prince.”

And, soon enough, an Elim came into the room wearing royal clothes.

He spoke haughtily. “I wish to inspect your cargo.”

Both Shiro and Allura knew enough to bow deeply. “As you wish.”

They led him to the ship. Hunk had been patiently waiting, and they set him free on the markets with part of their cargo. The prince made a show of inspecting everything, and then he came with them as they began to trade. They didn’t make especially profitable trades. Partly so they wouldn’t have to carry too much, and partly because they knew that Hunk would get the absolute best deal on anything he traded for. The prince discreetly led them to a large auction house, where they traded with the man in charge to barter off the rest of their goods for them. Then they slipped down to the basement. The prince opened a trap door, and then went further still, downward.

Finally they had made it to a place he deemed safe. The prince turned to them.

“I’ve heard much about Voltron, about what it’s done, and about how the Galra view it. As I’m sure you can see, the Galra have taken my planet. They have my parents as hostages, and they’ve used my brother as a threat. I am willing to offer the planet to Voltron, as a base for war or for peace, if you will break us free of this hold.” He knelt on the floor. “Please. Free my planet.”

Allura tried to go to him, but Shiro stopped her. “With what authority do you offer your planet? You are not king, and we have no promise that you will become king.”

“My father is aware of his place as a hostage. He has given me authority to act in secret for the good of the planet.”

“For how long do you offer the planet to us?”

“Until the end of my reign.”

Shiro nodded. “We accept.” He also knelt on the floor, and Allura followed his example. “May we deal well with one another.”

The prince’s eyes widened. “Yes, and kindly.”

“Now, explain to us about how your brother is a threat.”

The prince nodded. “You’ve seen him. He’s always in the throne room.”

“The old one?” Allura asked.

“Yes. He says that he is in his eighties, but just ten years ago he was thirteen.”

“What happened?” Shiro asked.

“Our planet was in a revolt ten years ago. We almost succeeded, but then more soldiers were sent, and we were crushed. We didn’t give up though, but then the Galra returned the prisoners that they had taken. All of them had aged nearly sixty years, but they had only been captured ten months ago. My brother was among them. The Galra, since then, to keep us quiet, take our people, and return them to us aged. They say that they can do it to anyone that they want. We have not been able to find out how they do it, or how to stop it.”

“What about the people that come back, what do they say?” Allura asked.

“They are old, they cannot remember well, or speak well, but they speak of an endless swamp, and of an invisible fence that hurts those it touches.”

Shiro nodded. “In that case, we’ll have to strike quickly and forcefully. Do you know where the Galra have their largest barracks?”

The prince nodded.

Shiro, Allura, and the prince talked of strategy for the next several hours, and then they left with Hunk, ready to assemble Voltron to take the planet back the next day.

  
___________________________________________________

  
“Green, don’t come down here!” Pidge yelled. “I can’t breathe without the helmet.”

“I know.” The alien said.

Pidge was pulled along back to the room, and then along the large passageway to the next room. This room was higher, and half of it was above the water level. As they swam, she could feel Green muscling through the trees above them to follow. Pidge was pulled out of the water, and the aliens turned on the lights in their suits.

The room had nearly fifty aliens, all of the same kind, and clearly having lived here for a long time. All of the tech Pidge had hoped to find was in here, in use.

“Who are you? Why are you here? Why were you following us?” The questions were bombarded at her from several aliens at once.

Pidge had to explain about her father and brother, and about Voltron, and how she had gotten stuck in here. When she had finished, the aliens told her. about their planet, Elis, and how the Galra has taken it over, and how they were prisoners here.

“So it’s a time bubble!!!” Pidge exclaimed. “That’s why I couldn’t get out, or see anything inside it with scans, and why the trees are so massive. The metal down here must be how they made the gate, and that’s why it’s the only way to get out.”

The leader of the Elim nodded. “It would make sense.”

“And that’s why no one’s come after me, to them it’s only been a few hours. If it’s really an hour to three days, then time here is more than sixty times time outside. And… it’ll be quite a while before anyone gets here.”

The Elim leader nodded again. “We’ve been here nearly twelve years now. And there’s evidence that our people have been here for hundreds of years altogether.”

“Then we’ll stop it. At this rate, I can expect rescue in a month. We’ll get ready. Once they come for me, we’ll take you with us, and we’ll take your planet back!”

“Can you promise that, though?”

“Yes. Even if I have to do it alone, I will get your planet free.”

There was a palpable thrill of excitement.

“But let’s get ready. We have a month, and if I’m right about what metal this is, we can make you guys some great weapons with it, and you can help free your planet. I’ll go get Green, explain to her, we’ll definitely do this.”

Pidge went back up to the top to talk to Green. They both agreed that the first order of business was to get an above-ground home for the Elim, and then to get a way to forge the metal into weapons. Then they would train with the Elim, and wait for the other paladins to open the gate.

Green and Pidge trampled a large circle. It took several hours, even though Green was so large. Then Pidge took her bayard and plunged it into its place. Green and Pidge together focused, and made a tightly woven floor, thick enough to hold up Green, and made with the thick tree-vines that were everywhere. Then Green suggested something to Pidge, which Pidge thought was a wonderful idea. The berry plants were stimulated, and grown up into walls and ceilings and hammocks.

Pidge was thrilled, both with herself and Green. She had never thought that such a thing could be so easily done. She went back down into the tunnels and told the Elim. Some of them didn’t want to leave, and some were already stockpiling the metal ore, but others were glad to follow Pidge.

To her surprise, that room was not the only room with Elim in it, and certainly not the only one with aliens in it. Soon, the house she and Green has made was packed. The aliens had all gone underground when she had arrived outside, since they didn’t know her, and the sight of a massive mechanical lion was enough to make anyone distrustful. She and Green made three other houses, at equal distances around the circle, and soon they were all filled as well.

Pidge went to bed that night exhausted. But also exhilarated, and with a clearer sense of purpose than she had had in a long time.

Within a week, they had good houses for everyone, the ones who had gotten sick from being wet and underground so long were being cared for, and they had made makeshift forges to make the metal into weapons. There wasn’t much metal left, not quite enough to arm everyone, but it certainly was better. Everyone was happy, and intensely waiting for the end of the month.

  
__________________________________________________

  
Lance jumped when he was startled out of a nap by Shiro’s voice over the palace intercom.

“Tomorrow we are going to free the planet Elis. Coran, please get the castle ready. Lance, go find Pidge and get her back here.”

Lance’s eyes sparkled, despite the fact that he had just woken up. He went immediately to Blue and rode off towards the planet Pidge had gone to.

When he got there a while later, the compound was lit up and blaring an alarm. He raced around, searching for Pidge, and not finding her anywhere, when he started to pay attention to what the alarm signs were saying.

**Open the gate.**

Lance went to the gate, and fiddled with a bunch of stuff before it started to open. It began to open outward, very slowly.

  
_____________________________________________________________

  
They had all assembled. Two days ago, in the evening, someone had first seen the blue lion coming down out of the sky. And now, the gate was opening. There were men ready to hold the gate open until everyone could get through, and all of the belongings were in handmade backpacks, though there wasn’t much. Everyone fit for fighting held a spear tipped with the metal. As the gate opened, Pidge saw Lance looking in, entirely flabbergasted at seeing an army of people ready to leave.

As soon as she could, Pidge ran at Lance, tackling him to the ground. “I missed you so much! We’ve got to get in touch with the castle, but I just… I haven’t hugged a human in so long.”

“What’s going on?” Lance asked, hugging her back just as tightly, despite his confusion. “Who are these people?”

Once everyone had made it safely out of the time bubble, the leaders of each race came and gathered around Lance and Pidge.

“Lance, this is Ceuta, Millith, Lokons, and Assal. Assal and his people are from Elis. We have to free their planet. I don’t know if we can free all four planets, but if we free Elis, they can help take in refugees at least.”

“Shiro and Allura just came back from Elis, I came to get you to help free it anyway.”

Pidge grinned. “Then it’s settled. Now that we’re out, I’m going to send a transmission to Coran. We need the castle to pick up all of these people.”

Pidge ran back to Green and sent off the transmission, then came back to Lance for another hug. She fully intended to tackle everyone else as soon as they got here, but for now, she was going to take comfort from Lance.

“What happened? You were only here for an afternoon and part of the night. How did you get so many people to follow you? I talked with those leaders, they think that you’re some pretty hot stuff.”

Pidge grinned again. “That thing is a time bubble. I was inside for a bit over a month.”

The look on Lance’s face was just as satisfying as she had hoped.

Just then there was a portal, and the castle appeared. Pidge climbed up into Green, and spoke through a megaphone that Green had to everyone.

**“Go inside, stay together in your teams as much as possible. There’s room and showers enough for everyone, as long as you stay in order.”**

Then she flew Green inside the castle, and explained to Coran that she had told some of the people how to work things around the castle, so that they could get set up on their own. Once she had answered all his questions, Coran was more than happy to give her a hug.

Pidge ran off in search of the others, and explained things to each of them in turn. Then she took a very long, very soapy shower, and went to her own room to go to bed.

By morning, she, and everyone, were very ready to do battle.

She discussed strategy with Shiro, and the alien leaders, and they made a compromise between his plan and hers.

Each lion had as many soldiers as could fit in its mouth. They flew to each major stronghold, defeated it with their lion, and then left the soldiers to hold it. Then they flew back for more. Once the land fortresses were under Elim power once again, Voltron formed to destroy completely the ones in the air.

Voltron stayed around the planet for a week after, making it clear to the fleets of ships trying to reclaim the planet that there was no hope of taking it back.

As for the planet with the time bubble, Elis took control of it, and used the time bubble for farming. The berries, which became known as Qots, grew very rapidly, and soon became a major export of Elis.

Pidge got some time by herself, as well as some much-desired one on one time with each other paladin. She and Green understood each other extremely well now, almost as well as Lance and Blue did. She also had to decline a marriage proposal by the prince of Elis, which she was very annoyed to receive.

The prince of Elis became king, and his parents retired. Refugees from several other planets, on hearing that Elis was free of the Galra, began to trickle in by fives and tens. True to his word, the king accepted them all.

In short, for the time being, everything was happy.

 

  
**The End**

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
